Masashi Oya arrived at the Venetian last week seeking his first-ever Hendon Mob database record. He left the Las Vegas resort on Thursday as the champion of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Season 12 finale, an $1,100 no-limit hold'em tournament that attracted 851 entrants.
Although Kyna England, an up-and-coming poker player from Chicago, didn't cash at the Venetian, she still wrapped up the Player of the Year award. Taylor Howard made the race interesting to close out the year as he ran deep and finished in 27th place for $3,860. But he needed a seventh-place or better finish to scoop POY.
As such, England won the award with 4,750 points, while Howard accumulated 4,058 points. Cy Church took third place with 3,925. England became the first-ever female to win MSPT Player of the Year.
The past year has been quite impressive from England, why mostly played low-stakes games prior to 2021 and private home games during the pandemic. She entered the year with just $21,000 in live tournament cashes and finished the 2021 campaign with $749,000 in cashes alone, putting her in contention for breakout player of the year in poker.
England put the cherry on top of a banner year by shipping the $1,110 MSPT Minnesota Winter Poker Open for $186,709 in early December, her first MSPT title and sixth Season 12 cash. Her biggest score of the year came in the $5,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Venetian where she took fourth place for $448,755.
Picked a Good Time for a First Cash
Japanese poker player Masashi Oya came up big at the Venetian to wrap up Season 12. The tournament, which took place December 28-30 in Las Vegas, came with a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool. Like most MSPT events, the guarantee was smashed as it hit $821,216.
Oya outlasted the massive field and rang in the New Year with $161,780, his first and only cash on The Hendon Mob. He beat out Jerry Payne from Dayton, Ohio to take it down. Payne received $108,154 as a consolation prize. The full final table results were as follows:
MSPT Venetian Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masashi Oya | $161,780 |
| 2 | Jerry Payne | $108,154 |
| 3 | Kelly Kielbasa | $78,262 |
| 4 | Rob WazWaz | $58,717 |
| 5 | Thu Nguyen | $43,935 |
| 6 | Ron West | $32,849 |
| 7 | Aaron Massey | $24,472 |
| 8 | Chris Paolino | $18,231 |
| 9 | Mohammed Bennane | $13,961 |
Kielbasa was the lone Las Vegas local at the final table. The Mid-States Poker Tour will now move on to Season 13 starting with the $400,000 guaranteed event at Sycuan Casino Resort in San Diego starting January 6.
